Business Directories

Islamists trying to weaken UAE: police chief

Dubai, March 28, 2012

Dubai's top security official accused supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood in the UAE of using social media to stir up opposition to the Gulf's ruling elite.

Dubai police chief Dahi Khalfan said sympathisers of the organisation, which has moved to the heart of public life in Egypt since President Hosni Mubarak was toppled last year, sought to weaken the UAE by defaming its institutions.

His remarks are likely to deepen a bitter public row between the Brotherhood and the UAE, which has in the past stripped citizenship from critics affiliated with Islamist organisations.

"Tweets by the Muslim Brothers have political goals," he said during a lecture to lawyers. "They belittle the symbols of the state and question the integrity of the judiciary... they want to stir the streets against us."

Khalfan's row with the Brotherhood broke out in February, after the UAE decided not to renew residence permits of Syrians who had taken part in protests in Dubai against the rule of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.

The move was criticised by Qadrawi, an Egyptian cleric based in Qatar, which took him in during a crackdown against Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in the 1960s.

Khalfan lashed out at Qaradawi, threatening to arrest him if he set foot in Dubai, and on Tuesday said the Brotherhood was plotting to seize power in Gulf countries.

"Western intelligence services leaked to me a piece of information that says that between 2012 and 2016 the (Muslim Brotherhood) aims at creating governments in the Gulf that pay allegiance to them," he told reporters.

He said those who compare the UAE government to Egypt and Tunisia under autocratic rule should be prosecuted. "They demand the ruler should be from amongst the people. Did we bring ours from Mars?" he said. - Reuters